Fed Govt charges six people with treason over Independence Day coup plot
Fed Govt charges six people with treason over Independence Day coup plot
The Federal Government has charged six people, including a retired Major General and a serving Police Inspector with treason for attempting to overthrow President Bola Tinubu in a coup last year.
The charges were filed by the Attorney General if the Federation at the Federal High Court , Abuja, where the defendants are due to appear before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik on Wednesday.
A seventh person, a former governor and one-time Minister of State For Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, is said to be at large
Rumours of the coup plot first surfaced in October 2025 when the government abruptly cancelled a planned military parade to mark Nigeria’s 65th Independence Anniversary.
At the time, officials cited security threats, but speculation quickly linked the cancellation to a possible coup plot.
The military denied the suggestion, but in January it announced that 16 officers were to be tried before a military court for attempting to oust the president.
It is unclear whether the charges filed in the Federal High Court, which also include terrorism and money laundering, are in addition to the military prosecutions.
Sylva, who served as junior minister from 2019 to 2023 under former President Muhammadu Buhari and was also governor of the oil-rich Bayelsa state from 2007 to 2012, denied links to a coup plot after his house was ransacked by investigators last October.
An arrest warrant was issued for him the following month in a separate case launched by the country’s anti-corruption agency.
At the time his spokesman said the former minister was in the United Kingdom for a medical check-up and said the allegations were politically motivated
